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Vestnes FMT has received a contract for 4 newbuildings from Ulstein Verft in Ulsteinvik. Newbuildings 296, 297, 298 and 299, being built for Blue Ship Invest, will be equipped with state-of-the-art “Willy” furniture packages.

These four newbuildings are medium-sized platform supply vessels (PSV) of PX121 design and are scheduled for delivery from Ulstein Verft in 2013.

Vestnes Ocean is a turn key supplier of accommodation solutions for the maritime industry. The company has developed its own concept of ship furniture named “Willy”, especially made for the life onboard, together with the designers Ralston & Bau.

ULSTEIN has over time been cooperating with the American shipbuilding group Vigor Industrial in the development of the conceptual design for a coastguard vessel (OPC – Offshore Patrol Cutter). Vigor is now announcing ULSTEIN’s SX151 design in the United States as part of a campaign aimed at the U.S. Coast Guard, that plans to renew its fleet with up to 25 new ships.

“We have worked together with Vigor for two years, and have developed a concept we have great faith in. The ship is 100 metres long and 16.4 metres wide and has a top speed of 22 knots. A typical operating speed can vary from 5 to 22 knots, and the ship is therefore equipped with a combined diesel mechanic / diesel electric propulsion system. The ship accommodates 124 persons, is equipped with a helicopter deck and hangar, and a hangar for three rescue boats,” says Deputy CEO, Tore Ulstein, responsible for Market and Innovation in Ulstein Group.

This is a long-term project: “Several yards are currently sending their prospects to the Coast Guard. Towards the end of 2014 or beginning of 2015, the Coast Guard will award the contract”, says Ulstein.

In recent years, Inge Gjelsten has been Captain on board several newbuilds: “’Blue Fighter’ is the best of them by far,” he states. He is soon to retire, and concludes: “If I were a newly-educated captain planning for a career on a supply vessel in the North Sea, a vessel of this type would be my preferred choice.”

The medium-sized platform supply vessel ‘Blue Fighter’ of PX121 design from ULSTEIN was ordered based on trends in the North Sea market. After only days of operation in the spot market, ‘Blue Fighter’ entered a one-year contract, with an option for an additional year, with the American oil company Apache for work in the North Sea.

Remøy Shipping has technical and commercial management of the vessel and feedback on her seakeeping abilities is invariably positive.

Captain Gjelsten continues:

“All on board agree that this is a remarkably efficient and comfortable vessel in all weather conditions. Wind and seas have little impact on the vessel’s performance compared to conventional PSV s. We can compare performance directly when steaming on the same tracks to the oil fields: With the same weather conditions and 3-5 metres head sea within 30 degrees of the bow, our ship can easily and comfortably maintain a speed of 12-13 knots, while the other vessels have to reduce their speed to 7-8 knots. The higher speed is a result of the ‘X-BOW® effect’. Also, due to the position of the stabilisation tanks on board, ‘Blue Fighter’ operates extremely well when wind and seas approach from the side.”

Norway’s Ulstein Verft yesterday succesfully launched a new PSV, Blue Prosper (Yard no. 294), the second of two medium-sized platform supply vessels (PSV) of the new PX121 design from ULSTEIN® for Blue Ship Invest.

The platform supply vessel was launched from the dock after the final paintwork had been carried out inside the dockhall. The vessel is due for delivery in August this year.

The vessel is built with the X-BOW® hull line design, which is particularly well-suited for this type of vessel. The X-BOW offers efficiency over a wide draught range, which is important for PSVs as they frequently operate with varying loads. Moreover, the X-BOW has unique, advantageous qualities in terms of motion and propulsion efficiency in heavy seas. Both the hull and choice of propulsion system make the vessel particularly suited for North Sea and North Atlantic conditions. The vessel is equipped with a dynamic positioning system IMO Class II.

The ship has a length of 83.4 metres and a beam of 18 metres. It has a cargo deck of 875 square metres and a load capacity of 4200 tonnes (dwt). The ship meets the requirements of DNV’s Clean Design notation and is prepared for fire-fighting class Fi-Fi II. It has a maximum speed of circa 15 knots and modern accommodation for 24 persons.

Polarcus Limited, a pure play marine geophysical company with a pioneering environmental agenda, specializing in high-end towed streamer data acquisition from Pole to Pole announces, has signed a Letter of Intent with an undisclosed client for a 3D seismic acquisition project offshore West Africa.

The project, to be acquired by POLARCUS SAMUR, will commence in late January and is expected to run for approximately 40 days.

Delivered Q1 2011 Polarcus Samur is an ultra-modern and Arctic-ready 8 streamer 3D vessel capable of towing both conventional and wide tow spreads, including Polarcus’ First Pass™ 3D technique requiring lateral streamer separations of 200m. Built to the ULSTEIN SX133 design and incorporating the innovative ULSTEIN X-BOW® hull, this vessel combines the latest developments in maritime systems with the most advanced seismic and source technol-ogy commercially available. The vessel is also amongst the most environmentally sound seismic vessels in the market with diesel-electric propulsion, high specification catalytic convertors, a double hull and advanced ballast water treatment / bilge water cleaning systems. The vessel complies with the stringent DNV CLEAN DESIGN notation.

Baker Hughes Incorporated has posted Weekly Rig Count reports to its Investor Relations website according to which the U.S. offshore rig count is up from last week. BHI Rig Count: U.S. -2 to 874 rigs U.S. Rig Count is down 2 rigs from last week to 874, with oil rigs up 5 to 664, gas […]

Exxon Mobil Corporation, an American oil and gas corporation, Friday announced estimated second quarter 2015 earnings of $4.2 billion, compared with $8.8 billion in the same period a year earlier. The U.S. Upstream operations recorded a loss of $47 million, down $1.2 billion from the second quarter of 2014. Non-U.S. Upstream earnings were $2.1 billion, […]

Chevron Corporation, an American multinational energy corporation, Friday reported earnings of $571 million for the second quarter 2015, compared with earnings of $5.7 billion in the same period last year. Included in the quarter were impairments of $1.96 billion and other charges of approximately $670 million relating to project suspensions and adverse tax […]

Afren, an international independent oil exploration and production company, has filed for administration after failing to get support for its refinancing efforts. According to Afren, the recently completed operational review has led the company to expect materially lower near-term production from its assets as compared to the production level assumed in the […]

Awilco Drilling PLC, a UK-based drilling contractor, and Hess Limited have mutually agreed to release the WilHunter semi-submersible rig ahead of the December 1, 2015 contract date as a consequence of the early completion of the decommissioning program. Awilco has said that there will be no negative financial repercussions to either party as a result of this […]

The Offshore Installations (Offshore Safety Directive) (Safety Case etc.) Regulations 2015 (SCR 2015) came into force on July 19, 2015. They are the UK’s response to the EU’s Offshore Directive which was adopted in June 2013. Britain’s Health and Safety Executive (HSE) published a new guide to help offshore oil and gas operators to adhere […]

British energy company BG Group, soon to be taken over by Shell in a $70 billion deal, has seen its profit rise in the second quarter of 2015. Namely, BG Group reported that its total earnings for the second quarter of 2015 were $2 225 million compared to $1 367 million in the second quarter […]

The World Bank Thursday approved a $700 million investment in guarantees for Ghana’s Sankofa gas project, located in the Cape Three Points block, 60km offshore Ghana. According to the Washington-based international organization World Bank, Sankofa is a transformational project that will help develop new sources of clean and affordable natural gas for domesti […]

U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources approved Thursday the Energy Policy Modernization Act of 2015, and Offshore Production and National Security Act (OPENS), which would ensure Alaska and other coastal states receive a fair share of the revenue from oil and gas activity off their shores. The bill would also lift the ban on […]

Subsea World News has put together a recap of the most interesting articles from the previous week (July 27– August 02). DOF Subsea, a subsidiary of DOF ASA, has reached an agreement with Subsea 7... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

The Board of Siem Offshore has decided to appoint Idar Hillersøy as new CEO of the company with effect from August 01. Idar Hillersøy has since April 01, 2015 been responsible for the OSV segment of... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Siemens Energy Management and VBMS (UK) Ltd have been selected by the proposed Navitus Bay wind park as the preferred electrical transmission system supplier. The two companies will come together to... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Stena Line considers the European Commission’s tacit approval of public financing of the Fehmarn Belt fixed rail-road link between Denmark and Germany discriminatory and not in line with EU State aid... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

The Honourable Gail Shea, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, and the Honourable Leona Aglukkaq, Minister of the Environment and Minister of the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency,... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Tidal Lagoon Power (TLP) has appointed JBA Consulting to undertake flood risk assessment work in relation to their Tidal Lagoon Cardiff project. The Severn Estuary is the focus of Tidal Lagoon... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Jee Ltd has announced a number of key internal promotions to strengthen its capabilities and champion the delivery of projects. The new structure, headed up by Jonathan McGregor, Head of engineering... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer will begin two months of dives using unmanned remotely operated vehicles, or ROVs, to explore marine protected areas in the central Pacific Ocean. Starting on Aug. 1,... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

JOIDES Resolution research vessel is preparing to take a group of international scientists on a two-month ocean expedition up the coast of Western Australia to drill deep into the seabed, on a... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

America’s first Bachelor of Science in Maritime Technology, offered by Northwestern Michigan College, is to get a special Falcon ROV, Saab Seaeye informed. In what the college says is a pioneering... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Statoil’s active leases in the Gulf of Mexico

“It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future": so goes a Danish proverb attributed variously to baseball coach Yogi Berra and physicist Niels Bohr. Yet some things are so important — such as projecting the future impacts of climate change on the environment — that we obviously must try. An Australian study published last week predicts th […]

(Reuters) - Bombs went off outside two churches in the southern New Mexico City of Las Cruces on Sunday, disrupting services and sending federal agents and local police to investigate. No one was hurt and there was minimal property damage. The first explosion blew up a mailbox near an administrative entrance to the Calvary Baptist Church as several worshiper […]

New York (AFP) - Triple Crown hero American Pharoah, already assured a place in the pantheon of thoroughbred greats, showed Sunday he hasn't lost a step since his Belmont triumph in June.The bay colt romped to victory in the Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park in Oceanport, New Jersey -- although his handlers remained coy on whether he's headed f […]

The strong dollar is one of the biggest stories in the global financial markets right now. At 97.47, the US dollar index is up over 19% from a year ago. While this is good news for importers, it's bad news for exporters. It's also rough on the US-based multinational companies that do a lot of business overseas. This is a big deal for the S&P 50 […]

Thomas Piketty — the French economist who took the economics world by storm last year with his landmark tome "Capital in the Twenty-First Century" — has a new book out. And Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman isn't sure why. Writing in Sunday's New York Times, Krugman says the book — "The Economics of Inequality" — is basically a re-h […]

Ever wish you could just disappear? Turns out this may not be as far off as we thought. In the past decade, scientists have made huge advances in developing super materials that may one day hide us from the prying eyes of those around us. And with a little bit of engineering and ingenuity, perhaps it may come in the form of an actual cloak, a la Harry Potter […]

Cyber-attacks are ten a penny now, and the FBI and other authorities that investigate these crimes around the world have many hurdles to cross if they want to catch a hacker. Police forces can often be hindered by the dark web and anonymizing tools used by cyber-criminals to cover their tracks, but there are also political barriers in arresting cyber-crimina […]

You might have heard or seen the term "fair trade" when buying your coffee. Fair trade coffee provides coffee growers, most of whom live in developing countries, with fairer wages that can help lift them out of poverty. Hugh Jackman journeyed to Ethiopia in 2009 as an ambassador for World Vision Australia, a humanitarian organization, to see first […]

As he continues to soar in the polls, billionaire Donald Trump is attempting to lower expectations about his performance when he meets with nine other GOP presidential candidates on stage Thursday in Cleveland. Trump stormed to the head of the massive field of GOP presidential candidates in the past two months with his brash, street-fighter style. He raised […]

SoulCycle — an expensive fitness studio popular among urban women — filed to go public on Thursday. This verifies that the boutique indoor cycling classes are, in fact, taking over America. But as with many fitness fads, it's not all it's cracked up to be. I can confirm this firsthand. I had a momentary obsession with SoulCycle. Stuck in a fitness […]

Submitted by John Stossel via Reason.com, Hillary Clinton gave a speech warning that the new “sharing economy” of businesses such as the ride-hailing company Uber is “raising hard questions about workplace protections.” Democrats hate what labor unions hate, and a taxi drivers’ union hates Uber, too. Its NYC website proclaims, “Uber has the money. But we are […]

One of the few silver linings surrounding the hard landing Chinese economy in recent weeks has been the surprising strength of the Baltic Dry Index: even as Chinese commodity demand has cratered in 2015, this "index" has more than doubled in the past few months from all time lows, and at last check was hovering just over 1,100. Many were wonderin […]

Submitted by Thad Beversdorf via FirstRebuttal.com, What we saw with the latest GDP reports is something truly remarkable. A market that was explicitly told the past 4 years of economic growth had been overstated simply shrugged off the news. That is, absolutely no price recalibration took place. This really evidences beyond any doubt that there is no rel […]

If the longs use VIX products as hedging instruments, then why would anyone take the other side? Especially in light of the fact that, as we discussed previously, only 1 in 20 "skilled" traders profit from VIX ETFs. Because, being short volatility can be very profitable, according to Goldman. Year-to-date this short vol index is up 56%, and selling […]

One narrative we’ve been building on for quite some time is the idea that both stocks and bonds have been propped up by a perpetual bid from price insensitive buyers. Put simply, it really doesn’t matter how overvalued something is if your primary concern is something other than maximizing your return on investment. Take corporate buybacks for instance. Bot […]

Submitted by Mark St.Cyr, There has probably been no greater investing mantra placed upon an industry in recent memory than the now reflexive, as well as defensive response of “It’s different this time” when questioning anything Social. Trying to understand the business model along with its metrics, valuations and more is not only arduous, the response seems […]

It's been a sad week for Venezuela. First, on Wednesday we showed what happens to local supermarkets when formerly Latin American paradises run out of other people's money. Then, the next day we showed what happens when in the aftermath of scenes such as the one above the social mood turns violent, and how what was once supposed to be a socialist u […]

Submitted by Jeffrey Snider via Alhambra Investment Partners, I typically stay away from sentiment indicators and measures of “confidence” not just because they are of dubious construction but they often don’t mean what they are taken for. In the case of consumer confidence, you get both problems simultaneously particularly at the ends of each cycle. In othe […]

Early last month in "Crowdsourcing Police Brutality", we highlighted an ongoing project at The Guardian which is attempting to tally the number of people killed by police in the US during 2015. Use of deadly force by authorities in America has become a hot button issue after several high profile cases involving the death of unarmed black suspects c […]

Part 4: The State Strikes Back The counterfeiting business, like any other, has fundamental economic constraints. At one end, operators must produce a product. That, in turn requires very specialized equipment and supplies, all of which cost money. The better the product is to be, the more it will cost to produce. In the case of the bills sitting in front of […]

It takes more than raw power to run a successful state; people must believe that laying their wealth at your feet is a righteous thing to do. This week, we'll look at a big part of how this idea came to Europe. Continued from last week... THE RE-CONQUEST The Church was not, however, willing to forgo military power. They knew its importance and wished to […]

Today's excerpt is by Orin Kerr, a George Washington University law professor. The Sandra Bland arrest video he discusses will – or at least should – outrage anyone who respects justice and decency. The way the officer repeatedly screams, "I'm giving you a lawful order" suggests he defines "lawful" as "subservient to me. […]

Modern technology makes life easier, but it can also change our perception in potentially dangerous ways. For instance, the Internet lets us see news and political commentary from many different perspectives. Intuitively, this might seem positive. We can easily examine various viewpoints and make informed decisions. What really happens, though, is that peopl […]

Due to Obamacare, my health plan has become something other than insurance. It is now, for the most part, nothing other than a wealth transfer scheme to benefit the politically connected over others. In order to identify the difference between health insurance and government-mandated health care coverage, we can look to Human Action, in which Ludwig von Mise […]